Obama touts Sandy response in final Fla. visit

11/4/12 5:29 PM EST

South Floridians know hurricanes – and many of them are former New Yorkers with relatives and friends still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.

President Obama made that connection Sunday during his final re-election campaign appearance in the Sunshine State, just as tempers – and lawsuits – flared over early voting delays in neighboring Dade County.

Speaking to a Hollywood, Fla., crowd that local officials estimated at 23,000, Obama trumpeted his response to last week's hurricane, noting he's been talking to “governors and mayors every single day” about the recovery effort.

“I want people to know that when I talk to them, I’m talking on behalf of America,” Obama added. “And I’ve told them that we will be with them every step of the way until they’ve fully recovered from the hardships and the crisis. And we’re going to do it together because that’s how we do it in the United States of America.”

Obama didn’t mention the turmoil over early voting in Dade County during his 25-minute stump speech. Earlier Sunday, the Florida Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit over long waits to vote and the Miami Herald reported that Miami-Dade local officials locked the doors for an hour at a local polling place because of high demand.

Both campaigns have a shot at Florida’s 27 electoral votes that are among the biggest prizes on Tuesday. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out Saturday had Obama ahead two points, while a Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9/Miami Herald survey showed Romney up 51 percent to 45 percent.

Warming up the Broward County crowd at the Obama rally were Pitbull, a Cuban-American rapper and Miami native, former Gov. Charlie Crist and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the local congresswoman and Democratic National Committee chairwoman.

Wasserman-Schultz reminded Floridians of the 527-vote margin that made the difference in the state in the 2000 presidential race. “This year, it could be even closer and the stakes are even higher,” she said.

Crist touted Obama's bipartisan chops by linking the administration's efforts on Hurricane Sandy to the BP oil spill that crippled Florida's tourism industry and shut down its beaches for several months in 2010.

“He was here day after day after day just like he was kind enough to do for Gov. Christie up in New Jersey and our friends in the Northeast,” Crist said. “And you know what, then he didn’t care that at the time that I was a Republican. He didn’t care this week that Gov Christie’s a Republican. He only knew that people needed help and he was there to help them.”